catalog of textiles from burying-ground in egypt vol.i

8/13/2019 Catalog of Textiles From Burying-Ground in Egypt Vol.I

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VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUMCATALOGUE OF TEXTILESFROM BURYING-GROUN DS

]N EGYPTVOL. LGR/ECO' ROMAN PERIOD


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Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2010 with funding from

University of Toronto

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6. Cloth of looped weaving.Frontispiece]


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VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUMDEPARTMENT OF TEXTILES

CATALOGUE OF TEXTILESFROM BURYING-GROUNDS

IN EGYPTVOL. I. GRiECO-ROMAN PERIOD

BY A. F. KENDRICK

LONDON : PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITYOF HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 1920


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Publication No. 129 T.Firstprinted—November, iqso.Crown Copyright Reserved.

This Catalogue may be obtained from the Victoria and Albert Museum, SouthKensington, London, S- W. 7, or through any bookselltiT, ' '1* f'' * post ^s. Od.J.

LIBRARYROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM


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PREFATORY NOTETHE collection described in the present catalogue may almost

be classed as a gift collection. The benefactions of theEgypt Exploration Fund, as well as of individual membersof that Society, have been its mainstay ; many other donors havepresented specimens ; and even where additions have been madeby purchase, the vendors have usually quoted prices which mustbe regarded as merely nominal.

The grateful thanks of the Museum are due to all donors,as well as to those who have given invaluable help from the storesof their knowledge. While this catalogue is going through thepress, the departure of Professor Flinders Petrie's Expedition toEgypt is announced. The good wishes of all interested in thesubject will go with the veteran explorer on an expedition whichinaugurates a new era of excavation.

CECIL H. SMITH.Victoria and Albert Museum,

November, ig2o.


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CONTENTSGENERAL INTRODUCTION - iVOLUME I.—GRJ'CO-ROMAN PERIOD—

Introduction --_-.-___ 25I. Tunics, Cloaks and Large Cloths - - - - 27

II. Looped Weavings ------- ^SIII. Figure-Subjects -------- ^^

§1. Gods and Mythological Subjects - - - - 59§2. Portrait Busts -------64§3. Mounted Huntsmen and Horsemen - - - 66§4. Huntsmen on Foot ------ 69 §5. Warriors -------- y2§6. Dancing Figures - - - - t - - yS§7. Vintage and Rustic Scenes - - - - - 77§8. Boys at Play ------- yg§9. Miscellaneous Figures - - - - - - 81

§10. Busts ---------82IV. Animals, Birds and Fishes ----- 84

§1. Animals --------86§2. Birds and Fishes -------94V. Trees, Plants and Ornament ----- 100

List of Useful Books -- - - - - -124Numerical Indexes - - - - - - - -129General Index --------- 139


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LIST OF PLATESNOTE.—The catalogue numbers are given belo%v in numerical order. On the platesthemselves they are given in the order in which subjects appear to facilitate reference.Frontispiece.—6. Cloth of looped weaving.Plate I.— i, 4. Tunics with tapestry-woven ornament.

II.—2, 3. Tunics with tapestry-woven ornament.220, 221, 222, 243, 244, 268. Tapestry-woven bands,

borders and panel.III.—8. Cloth of looped weaving.

14, 86, 89. Tapestry-woven ornament.IV.— 13. Cloth with tapestry-woven ornament.

203 to 210. Tapestry-woven panels.V.— 19, 61. Cloths with tapestry-woven ornament.

VI.—20. Tapestry-woven cloth.21. Cloth with tapestry-woven band.

VII.—9, 10, 18, 33, 34, 35. Ornaments in looped weaving.VIII.—22. Embroidered cloth.IX.—22. Detail of embroidered cloth.X.—26, 27, 38, 39. Cloths and ornaments in looped weaving,

XI.—23, 28, 29, 30, 36. Ornaments in looped weaving.XII.—41, 43, 47, 48, 51. Tapestry-woven panels.XIII.—46, 50, 163, 255, 256. Tapestry-woven bands andornaments.


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LIST OF PLATESPlate XIV.—42, 52, 53, 58, 59, 62. Tapestry-woven panels.

XV.—56, 57, 60, 63, 16. Tapestry-woven panels and band.299. Embroidered panel.XVI.—68, 150. Tapestry-woven ornaments.XVII.—69, 70, 71, 72. Tapestry-woven panels.XVIII.—74, 129. Tapestry-woven panel and band.XIX.—83, 165, 249. Tapestry-woven panel and bands.XX.—90. Tapestry-woven bands.XXI.—91, loi, 102. Tapestry-woven ornaments and bands.XXII.—95 (detail), 96, 98, 144. Tapestry-woven panels andbands.XXIII.— III, 112, 135, 136. Tapestry-woven panels.XXIV.— 138, 139, 172, 174, 176, 177. Tapestry-woven panels

and ornaments.XXV— 151, 162, 168, 183. Tapestry=woven panels and orna-

ments.XXVI.—80, 180. Tapestry-woven panel and band.XXVII.— 12, 187, 188. Tapestry-woven roundels and bands.XXVIII.— 123, 193 to 196. Tapestry-woven panel and roundels.XXIX.—199, 200. Tapestry-woven panels.Diagrams of patterns of 187, 199 and 200,XXX.— 198, 277. Tapestry-woven panels.XXXI.—216, 221, 223, 231, 278. Tapestry-woven panels and

bands.XXXII.—217, 229, 230. Tapcstry-wovcn panel and bands.


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NOTETHIS catalogue is the result of a careful and protractedexamination of the fine collection of stuffs in the Museumfrom the Egyptian burying-grounds. During the last fourdecades a great amount of textile material has been unearthed inEgypt. If only we could read their riddle we should learn moreabout the textile art of antiquity, and the rise of medifeval design,than all the material available elsewhere can tell us.

The literature on the subject is already considerable ; but itis only natural that, in regard to a subject where the materialaccumulates step by step with the literature, conclusions arrivedat should widely differ ; and, in the light of new knowledge, thewriters themselves would doubtless be the first to wish to recasttheir pronouncements.

The outstanding need at the present stage is for an exam-ination of material at present available with the aim, in the firstplace, of discovering the relation of the stuffs to one another, bothas regards pattern and technique, and, again, of bringing outsidematerial to bear, drawn not only from Egypt, but from other partsof the Graeco-Roman world.

It is on these lines that the present catalogue has been drawnup. Some of the conclusions arrived at are destined, no doubt,to be refuted by superior knowledge of to-day, and others bythe light of fresh discoveries in the days to come. The writerhopes that the scaffolding, at any rate, is provided for the hnalstructure.

It need hardly be added that the catalogue is not the work ofan Egyptologist. It is hoped that this circumstance will not be


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regarded as serious when it is recalled that the collection heredescribed lies wholly within the limits of the Christian era. Theinvaluable help of friends has supplied in places what a know-ledge of Egyptology and acquaintance with the country can aloneprovide. Mr. Stephen Gaselee has generously read through theproof, and, moreover, has helped the collection with his purse, aswell as the catalogue with the stores of his knowledge. The widelearning of Mr. W. E. Crum has also been taken advantage of.Mr. A. R. Guest has for many years been an indulgent and un-failing guide in regard to the Arabic inscriptions, and he has shownthat the number of dated stuffs in the collection is such that theMuseum may be proud of them. The value of Mr. Guest's workwill appear in a subsequent part of this catalogue. None of thesegentlemen, nor others who have given advice from time to time(among whom Professor Flinders Petrie must be mentioned), shouldhave laid at their door the mistakes and deficiencies in the cata-logue. Of all these the writer alone must bear the burden.Mr. Van de Put, of the Library, has kindly provided the list ofbooks printed at the end. of the catalogue. In conclusion, thewrite.r must thankfully acknowledge the help he has received fromcolleagues in the Department of Textiles.

A. F. KENDRICK.November, 1920.


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CATALOGUE OF TEXTILES FROMBURYING-GROUNDS IN EGYPTGENERAL INTRODUCTION

THE excavations in the Egyptian burying-grounds have pro-vided a unique record of the textile art of late Graeco-Romanand early mediaeval times. The earliest stuffs brought to light arefully pagan in character, others cover the period of transition frompagan to Christian art, and in the end we are enabled to trace thegradual transformation of the latter in the service of Muham-madanism.

The artistic history of this epoch was long involved in obscurity ;due partly, it must be confessed, to a lack of appreciation of its vitalsignificance, but still more to the paucity of material to work upon.Much remains hidden, no doubt, to award the excavator of thefuture, but already we have enough, both in quantity and variety,to warrant the attempt at a classification made in the followingpages. Had the diligence of the first excavators been attended bya more exact sense of the value of a detailed record of the sur-roundings of these stuffs when first revealed by the spade, muchwhich still can only be set down as conjecture might have beendwelt upon with greater certainty. Critical research has now forsome years been busy in making amends for the past, and thevaluable evidence on many points afforded by these stuffs fromEgypt claims for them a due share of attention.

When compared with the relics of the earliest Egyptiandynasties these textile fabrics seem almost to belong to our own

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day. The former give us an insight into a phase of the human storyof which we have no other records ; although we cannot make sohigh a claim in respect of the latter, yet it may truly be said thattheir witness is indispensable to the historian of the art of theirtime.

The earlier groups of textiles included in this catalogue areproducts of that Graeco-Roman art which then dominated theMediterranean region, and we must not expect them to bear thelocal stamp of the land where they were made.

The evidence of early mosaics and wall-paintings tends toshow that many of them differed little, if at all, in their style andornamentation from that of garments and hangings used in Rome,Ravenna, or Constantinople. But there remains hardly a vestigeof the actual stuffs from any site beyond the limits of Egypt. Thenarrow strip of fertile soil formed by the annual overflow of theNile was too valuable for any of it to be set apart for burying-grounds. Had this not been so, the fate which has obliterated thetraces of such grave-clothes elsewhere would have overtaken thesealso. Their preservation owes very little, if, indeed, anything, tothe practice of mummification in Egypt. At the time to whichthe majority, at any rate, of these stuffs belong, embalming, whereit existed at all, had become a very perfunctory process, and suchsubstances as were still used have tended rather to destroy than topreserve the garments. The burial-places were situated in thebarren strip between the limit of the Nile inundation and the neigh-bouring hills, at the foot of which they are often to be found. Itis to this dry soil that we owe their preservation.None of the patterned stuffs from Egypt in this Museum canbe ascribed to an earlier period than the beginning of the Christianera. A few years ago the same remark would have held good inrespect of all similar collections. Numerous linen cloths withpainted subjects of earlier times had been found, but none showing


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a woven pattern of any significance. The surprise came in 1903,when the tomb of Thothmes IV. (c. 1466 B.c ) at Tliebes yieldedthree fine specimens of hnen weavings bearing indisputable evi-dences of early origin. All three were woven by the tapestry-process illustrated so abundantly in the later fabrics from Egypt

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but while in the latter the tapestry-decoration is in wool or silk, inthese early stuffs it is of coloured linen threads.

The largest of the three pieces has woven into it the name ofAmenhetep II. (c. 1500 B.C.), and rows of lotus blossoms and papyrusinflorescences in colours (chiefly red and blue). One of the twoother pieces has the name of Thothmes III. (c. 1550 B.C.) Thereare painted photographs of these remarkable stuffs in the Museum ;the originals are preserved in the Cairo Museum. They serve toshow how early the tapestry-weaving process was known in Egyptup to the present we have nothing like them of an earlier date, andnothing for more than a thousand years afterwards.

More than a century has passed since the first of the patternedstuffs from Egypt were brought to light ; but only in recent decades,under skilled excavators, have proper records of the circumstancesof such discoveries been made. The shallow graves were easilyaccessible, and some of the best sites were pillaged by the localpeasantry. Garments were torn from the mummies, and the orna-mental parts cut out for sale. Stuffs found together were parted ;H. Carter and P. E. Newberry. Tomb of Thothmes IV. (Musee du Caire. Catalogue.Nos. 46526 to 46528), Plates I. and XXVIII. Prof. Petrie suggests that these stuffs may havebeen woven in Syria. A few shreds of stuffs found in 1878 in Greek tombs in the Crimea ofthird or fourth century B.C. are in the Hermitage Museum at Petrograd. They are of linenand wool, some having been woven by the same lapestry-proce.ss as the bulk of the stuffs fromEgypt. Others are embroidered (Compte-Rendu de la Commission Archeologique, St. Peters-burg, 1878-9, Plates III. to VI.). Some linen stuffs with embroidery or tapestrj'-decoration inthe Vatican resemble more closely the stuffs from Egypt. They were brought to light in 1903 inthe relic-chest under the altar of the Cappella Sancta Sanctorum in Rome. The most importantexample is a linen cloth (brandeum, mappula). The tapestry ornaments consist of two straightbands running right across the cloth, with concentric hexagons in blue, green, yellow, and whiteon a red ground ; and two rows of saltirc crosses in colours. (H. Grisar, II Sancta Sanctorum(1907). FiG- 61 ; P. Lauer, Le Tresor du Sancta Sanctorum (1906), Fig. 21).


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no record of the nature of the garments to which they belonged waskept, and any other articles found at the same time which mighthave afforded material for a scientific classification were separatelydisposed of. Even the locality of discovery was concealedthrough fear of punishment, or through the desire to limit as faras possible the number of those sharing in the plunder.

The historical and artistic value of these stuffs, which in earlierdays may have seemed merely to border on the confines, if notaltogether to lie beyond the scope, of Egyptological studies, is nowmeeting full recognition.

Interest in the archaeology of Egypt is not of recent origin.Antiquities were unearthed and brought to England as early asthe seventeenth century,' and in the eighteenth century travellersdescribed the monuments seen by them in Egypt. The excavationsset in hand during the French occupation under Napoleon in1798 to 180 1, brought to light the first series of Graeco-Romanstuffs recovered from the soil of Egypt. In the latter yeara tunic was found in the neighbourhood of Saqqarah, nearMemphis, not far from the apex of the Nile delta.' A numberof stuffs in the Turin Museum, products of the Napoleonic excava-tions, were probably obtained at this site about the same time.^Others are in the Louvre,^ and it is thought that they also belongedto the same excavations. Some of the examples which have beenfor many years in the British Museum are also recorded to havebeen obtained from Saqqarah' at a period not stated.'E.g., Ashmelean Museum (Summary Guide, Oxford, igog, pp, 18, 75). A series of wax-portraits of tfie Gr;eco-Roman period found in 1615 by Pietro della Valle at Saqqftrali is atDresden (Petrie, Hawara, 1889, p. 40).^Histoire et M6moires de I'Acad. des inscr. V. (1821).3A few of tlicse are illustrated in Dupont-Auberville. L'Ornement des Tissus [iSyy}, Plate I.'See Fischbach Gewcbc {1874), PtATE I. As late as the time of this work, and that abovequoted, these stuffs were supposed to be of 1000 B.C. or earlier. See also Prisse d'Avenncs.Hist, de I'Art Eg. (1878), Plate 90.5S. Birch's ed. of Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, II., p. 176.


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From the time of Napoleon until the eve of the British andFrench expedition of 1882, such stuffs as were brought to lightappear to have been found more or less accidentally, and not asthe result of systematic excavation. In the earlier part of thecentury foreign excavators worked on their own account. A busytraffic in Egyptian antiquities began, and European collections wererapidly formed. Under Sa'id (son of Muhammad Ali), Pasha ofEgypt from 1854 to 1863, steps were taken for the preservation ofthe monuments of the country, and the Bulaq Museum was founded(1861). Operations were placed under the charge of Mariette, anddigging by unauthorised persons forbidden (1863). In 1881, SirGaston Maspero, then Director of the Cairo Museum, began to ex-cavate early Christian sites, and he followed this work up withmuch success in subsequent years. In 1882, a Viennese merchant,Th. Graf, took to Vienna a collection of stuffs which had beenrecently excavated at Saqqarah, the collection being acquired inthat year for the Vienna Museum. About the same time Schwein-furth excavated at Arsinoe. In 1885-6 Franz Bock obtained tex-tiles by excavation in Upper Egypt. In 1889 M. Wladimir Bockconducted excavations at Akhmim, Aswan, in the Faiyum, andelsewhere, for the Hermitage Museum at Petrograd.

Meanwhile, in 1881, the Egypt Exploration Fund began itscareer, and the era of systematic and scientific excavation wasinaugurated, although, of course, it was not possible finally to putan end to native depredations among the burying-grounds. Othersocieties followed—the Egypt Research Account (1896), whichbecame later the British School of Archaeology in Egypt (1905) ;in 1901 the Orient-Gesellschaft began operations in Egypt.

The various foreign influences paramount in the ornamenta-tion of the stuffs discovered at Akhmim and Antinoe, and in otherA. Riegl. Agyptischen Textilfunde (Vienna, 1889). The site whence they had been obtainedwas not disclosed until later.


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burying-grounds of Egypt, are largely explained by the fact thatthe country had already been long under foreign domination whenthey were woven, as the following brief notes will show. Greeksettlers and traders appeared in Egypt as early as the seventhcentury B.C., when they founded the town of Naukratis, half-waybetween the sites of the later cities of Alexandria and Cairo.Psammetichus (c. 664 B.C.) encouraged them, and in his time Nau-kratis, apparently at first of wood, was rebuilt of bricks. His sonand successor, Necho (c. 610 B.C.), formed a mercenary Greek army,which was maintained under the next king. Amasis II. (c. 570 B.C.)formed an alliance with the Greeks, and granted them commercialprivileges.The last king of this dynasty (the twenty-sixth), Psammeti-chus III. (525 B.C.), son of Amasis II., was defeated by Cambyses,and Egypt became a province of the Persian empire. The Persianrule over Egypt lasted for little more than a hundreci years(c. 527-420 B.C.)'

Three brief native dynasties followed, covering the next eightyyears. The Persians, who had already attempted the conquest ofEgypt for a second time, and had been repelled with Greek aid,then regained their power, which was destined to be of short dura-tion. Alexander the Great, after defeating Darius III. at the Issus(332 B.C.), passed on to Egypt, and was welcomed both by Egyptiansand Greeks. On the partition of the provinces of Alexander'sempire, after his death, Egypt fell to the share of his generalPtolemy. The Ptolemaic period (305-30 B.C.) opened brilliantlyfor the country ; the arts flourished, Greek culture was fostered,learned institutions were founded, and Egypt became wealthy andpowerful. The history of the later Ptolemies is largely one ofintrigue and assassination. During the reign of Ptolemy V. the' The Persian influence discernible later in some of the silk stufis from the tombs can have norelation to the earlier Persian rule over the land.


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protection of Rome was invoked, and from this time tlie influenceof tlie Roman power was never relaxed until Cleopatra (51-30 B.e.),together with her brother, Ptolemy XIV., was left by her fatherunder the guardianship of the Roman Senate, and at the close ofthis Queen's adventurous career by suicide in 30 B.C., Egypt becamea Roman province. With the loss of independence, Egypt lost herseparate political identity. The Roman emperors were kings ofEgypt, governing through a prefect, and the fortunes of Egyptfollow the vicissitudes of the Roman imperial sway.

During the reign of Nero (54-68 a.d.), Christianity is said tohave been first preached in Egypt, and St. Mark is supposed to havearrived at Alexandria in 69 a.d. Hadrian (i 17-138) twice visitedEgypt, and founded the city of Antinoe, which has been excavatedby M. Gayet, yielding some of the most remarkable of all the tex-tiles found in Egypt. Marcus Aurelius (161-180) showed toleranceto the Christians, and Christianity spread. Soon after this timethe Egyptian Christians, called Copts, adopted the Greek alphabetfor writing the native Egyptian language, with the addition ofcertain letters from the Egyptian demotic, denoting sounds whichcould not be rendered by the Greek.'

At the beginning of the third century, active persecution ofthe Christians began, continuing intermittently through the cen-tury, and culminating in the severe repressive measures of Dio-cletian (284-305).

During a respite in the persecutions of this century the churchof St. Mary at Alexandria was built, in the reign of Aurelian(270-276).' This is supposed to have been the first Christianchurch built in Egypt. In the second half of the third or'Such inscriptions are often seen on the later stuffs.'There are said to have been Christian burning-places in the rocks behind Alexandria in thesecond century (Bock). St. Paul the Anchorite is believed to have retired to the desert aboutthe year 200, and St. Anthony ended a long life about 350. (See S. Gaselee, Native Literatureof Christian Egypt ; Trans. K.S.L. Vol. XXXIII.. p. 10 foil.).

7 B


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early in the fourth century the Bible was translated into Coptic.The Christians of Egypt shared with the rest of the Empire thefavour extended to their religion by Constantine the Great (323-337).Under Theodosius the Great (379-394), Christianity was declaredthe religion of the Empire. The old Egyptian worship was sup-pressed in Northern Egypt, and many temples were turned intochurches. During this century monasticism spread widely, anddisputes over matters of dogma were waged with great zeal, andsometimes with loss of life.

On the division of the Roman Empire into two parts (394),Egypt was ruled from Constantinople, the Eastern capital. As theimportance of this city grew, that of Alexandria waned. So lateas the time of Marcianus (450-457), who fought the Nubians, Isisand Serapis were still worshipped at Philae. In the first half of thefollowing century, the Nubians, who had been accustomed to makepilgrimages to Philse, embraced Christianity, and under Justinian(527-565), the temples at Philas were closed, and the statues of thedeities taken to Constantinople.

Already before the end of the fifth century the Egyptians wereagain attacked by their ancient enemies, the Persians. In 619they invaded Egypt under Chosroes, but were driven out by Herac-lius ten years after. In 640 the Arabs conquered Egypt, and theRoman (Bj'zantine) rule came to an end.

The history of Egypt under Roman sway, from the time ofCleopatra to that of the Arab invasion, and also during the longdomination of the latter people, is reflected very plainly in thevarious types of stuffs found in the burying-grounds. There aregroups of stuffs of good Grseco-Roman style, and of those in whichthis tradition is beginning to grow faint. In the latter. Christianemblems make their appearance. Then follows the fully-developedCoptic style, with new ideals and new subjects to represent. Thisstyle, which definitely marks the end of the classical period, is to

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be regarded as a phase of early Christian art. Under the Arabs, anew and characteristic style was gradually formed out of the Coptic.In the earlier groups, the inscriptions are either in Greek, or inCoptic written in Greek characters. The occupants of the gravesalso bear Greek names where they are recorded. It is only in rareinstances that any features of the design reveal an Egyptian origin.

The most prolific in its yield of textiles of all Egyptian centresof excavations is Akhmim, in Upper Egypt, on the right bank ofthe Nile, 315 miles above Cairo, and 140 miles, below Thebes.Akhmim occupies the site of the Greek Khemmis, or Pano-polis, a considerable city of the district. It was one of the chiefseats of the linen manufacture for which Egypt was famous through-out the civilised world.'

The burying-grounds in the low sandhills to the east of Akhmimwere first discovered by Maspero in 1884 and during successiveyears they yielded a great amount of material which has formedthe bulk of most of the collections of Egyptian stuffs. In theburying-grounds of Akhmim excavated since 1884 were interredsuccessive generations of its population from the earlier Grseco-Roman epoch through Christian times to the period of the Arabdomination. The foundation of the Museum collection was laid,in 1886, by the acquisition of about 300 pieces from this site. Ineach successive year until 1893, and occasionally since that date,acquisitions were made from the same site.

Next to Akhmim, Antinoe has rewarded the excavator with agreater quantity of textiles of different classes than any other sitein Egypt, and it yields to no other site, not even to Akhmim, in theinterest and importance of its stuffs.

Founded in the year 140 by the Emperor Hadrian in memoryof his friend, Antinous, we should not expect to find stuffs in its'The industry is still carried on there. Its striped and check materials for ass-cloths, and itsshawls and curtains are still greatly in demand.


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cemeteries of an earlier date than the first half of the second century.At the same time, burials must have begun almost at once, and,therefore, the earliest mummies must be not later than the middleof that century. The early Greek settlements in Egj^pt, Naukratisand Alexandria, for example, were situated not far from theMediterranean shore, but in Graeco-Roman times foreigners hadpenetrated and settled much farther inland. Hadrian's city layon the right bank of the Nile 178 miles above Cairo, and 276 milesbelow Luxor (Thebes). It was built on a liberal scale, and becamea large and magnificent city, the luxury of which was more thanonce rebuked by the Christian Fathers. Long after it fell intodecay, the site could be easily identified by means of the extensiveremains of colonnades and buildings, still to be seen in a view ofthe year 1804.' Since that date, much of the material was carriedoff to Cairo to be used in a modern building there (1827) , and a gooddeal of what was left was burnt into lime for building the largesugar factory at Roda, on the opposite bank of the Nile. M. Gayet'sexcavations at Antinoe were first begun in the winter of 1896-7.With the aid of contributions from the French Government, theChamber of Commerce at Lyons, the Musee Guimet in Paris, andthe Societe frangaise des Fouilles archeologiques, the work was car-ried on during successive winters until 1906-7. The cemeteries layto the east of the city. Founded on a virgin site in Imperial times,Antinoe is of peculiar interest in the matter of the chronology ofthe stuffs. This will be dwelt upon later. Here it need only bepointed out that mummies with painted representations of thedeceased on the canvas coverings, or with inserted wax-paintedportraits, besides others with portrait-heads modelled in plaster,have been found at Antinoe in considerable numbers. They maybe regarded as belonging to the years immediately following thefoundation of the city.

'See E. Guimet. Les Portraits d 'Antinoe, p. i.


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A number of the stuffs found were of the woollen tapestry-woven variety such as had already been unearthed at Saqqarah andAkhmim ; the chief feature is the wonderful series of soieriessassanides, silk stuffs, either of Persian origin or else woven fromPersian models, and differing in character from the silk stuffs foundelsewhere in Egypt. At Dair-ed-Dik, a short distance down theriver, was another burying-ground for the people of Antinoe. ThereM. Gayet found more of the Graeco-Roman tapestry stuffs, and also,above these burials, were Arabs who wore garments similar to thosefound near Asyut, at El A'zam.' The bulk of the collections ofstuffs found at Antinoe has been distributed among the Museumsof France. A few pieces have found their way into foreign col-lections. There are some at Berlin, and a number of silk specimensin the Victoria and Albert Museum of unrecorded provenancemay be assigned without hesitation to this site. The Exhibitionof the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1914 included some specimenswhich had then been recently excavated at Antinoe. A few ofthese were presented by the Fund to the Museum (Nos. 162 to 170—1914).

The next site whence stuffs were acquired for the Museum wasArmant or Erment (Hermonthis, Egyptian An-Mentu), which layon the left bank of the river eight miles above Thebes (Luxor), and462 miles from Cairo. The temple here was transformed into aChristian church, and ruins of another Christian church alsoexist. West of Armant are the Graeco-Roman and Copticburying-grounds. Stuffs from this site were first acquired for theMuseum in 1888 ; others were obtained in 1889 and 1892 ; theybelong to the Arab period, and include an important piece of theyear 1087 a.d.

'A. Gayet. Le Costume en Egypte (1900) ; E. Cuimet. Les Portraits d'Antinofi. M. Gayetalso conducted excavations at Akhmim, at Durunkah, near Asyut (Arabian period), and atDamietta {see post).

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In 1889 stuffs of the Graeco-Roman type were acquired fromHawarah, chiefly by gift from Mr. FUnders Petrie, Mr. H. M.Kennard, and Mr. Percy Newberry.

Mr. Petrie conducted important excavations at Hawarah in1887-8, and subsequently, in 1910-11. He found late burying-grounds ranging from the Ptolemaic period to the sixth century,and unearthed many patterned stuffs. His notes of the dates ofthe burials are of the greatest importance.' Hawarah is situatednear the eastern edge of the Faiyum, a fertile province of Egypt,lying about fifty miles to the south-west of Cairo, with a large lake(Birket-el-Qurun). A canal connects the province with the Nile,and upon it lies lUahun (El-Lahun), also excavated by Mr. Petrie.Stuffs from this site are also in the Museum. A very remarkableseries of mummy portraits, painted in wax, one of which is in theMuseum, while others are in the National Gallery and the BritishMuseum, were obtained from the cemetery of the Graeco-Romanperiod to the north of the Pyramid of Hawarah.

In the year 1890 stuffs were acquired from Manshiyah (orMeshaieh), on the left bank of the Nile, ten miles above Akhmim,occupying the site of Ptolemais, the Greek capital of Upper Egypt.The stuffs obtained by the Museum from this site are of the Arabperiod. At the same time, a few Coptic stuffs from the conventDair Mari Jirjis, three miles to the southward of Akhmim, wereacquired.

In the same year some embroidered Arab stuffs of a late periodwere acquired from Mata'iyah, in Upper Egypt.

In 1892 additions to the Museum collection were made fromIdfu (or Edfu), a site farther up the Nile than any of those yet' Hawara, 1889 ; Roman Portraits, 191 1 ; Hawara Portfolio, 1913. The two last volumes includeportraits discovered in 1910-11.'The importance of such portraits as these, illustrating garments similar to those found in thegraves, will be referred to later. Mr. Petrie points out that the cemetery seems to have beenessentially pagan, and that pagan funeral offerings were continued as late as the fifth, or,possibly, the sixth century (Hawara. p. 13).


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mentioned, lying on the left bank, 522 miles from Cairo, and 68miles north of Aswan, the ancient boundary of Egypt to the south.A considerable quantity of stuffs of the Arab period was dis-covered in 1897 in a burying-ground of Dair-el-A'zam, the site of aCoptic monastery on the hills to the west of Asyut,' and numerousexamples from this site were added to the Museum collection in1898 and 1900. Durunkah, a village to the south of Asyiit, wasalso explored at the same time.- Asyut, the Greek Lykopolis, ison the left bank of the Nile, 248 miles above Cairo.

A small fragment of fine tapestry-weaving in silk, acquired in1900, was obtained at El Kharijah (Kharga), in the Kharijah oasis,about 120 miles to the west of Isna (Esneh). A tapestry medallion ofthe Coptic period, from the excavations of 1^02-3 in a cemetery atOarara, near El Hibah, was given, with other objects, by the EgyptExploration Fund in 1903. El Hibah lies 98 miles above Cairo, onthe right bank of the Nile.

In 1904 the Egypt Exploration Fund made a gift of textilesfrom their excavations (1903-4) at Bahnasa (Oxyrrhynchus) , whichlies about ten miles to the west of the Nile, and 120 miles south ofCairo, on an arm of the Nile known as the Bahr Yusuf. The Fundalso made gifts to the Department from the excavations of 1903-4 atEhnas^-a (Ahnasiyah, Herakleopolis Magna), on the canal connect-ing the Faiyum with the Nile, and about ten miles from the river.

Portions of a painted linen hanging and two panels of bead-work, from a funerary temple at Dair-el-Bahri, found during theexcavations of 1906-7, were given by the Egypt Exploration Fundin the latter year.'Service des Antiquites de I'Egypto. Aiinalcs I. (1900), p. 109.•'M. Gayet subsequently found Arab and other stuffs at this site. A kerchief of the Graeco-Roman period is in the Museum. No. T245— 1917..'Portions of two mats and of a rope of vegetable fil)rc, from Mr. Garstang's excavations at Beni-Hasan in 1902-4, were given in this year by Mr. H. M. Kennard, with other things (Nos. 1088,1092, IOJ2 a— 1904).


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In 1919 the Museum received, by gift, a piece of a tunic statedto have been found at Abydos, the site of which city Ues at the edgeof the desert to the left of the Nile, about thirty miles south ofAkhmim.M. Gayet's excavations at Antinoe and El-A'zam have alreadybeen referred to. Remarkable success also attended his work inthe Delta region. The village of Shaikh Shata lies about two milesto the east of Damietta, on a promontory jutting into Lake Manzala,a locality distinguished in history as the site of a camp of theCrusaders. M. Gayet dug here in the winter of 1898-9. Amongstthe stuffs he found were two very remarkable examples now in theMuseum (see No. 22). The nature of the soil in the Delta is notgenerally conducive to the preservation of textiles ; and, in additionto their artistic interest, these two pieces stand out as the onlystuffs from the Delta in the Museum.

In addition to the stuffs recorded to have been obtained fromthe sites above mentioned, there are numerous examples in theMuseum, acquired by purchase in the market, or by gift, in regardto which the locality of discovery is not recorded. As a rule, thesedo not offer any special features not found among the stuffs fromrecorded sites, and in some cases it is possible to assign them toknown localities with reasonable probability of accuracy.

The depth below the surface at which the mummies were foundvaried considerably. Possibly in some cases the subsequent shiftingof the sand has caused some alteration in the level ; but there areother circumstances which account for a certain lack of uniformity.At times, economy of space has been the motive for burying severalbodies one above another. M. Wladimir Bock found as many asfifteen bodies in one grave. Others were dug for one burial only,and some were evidently family graves. Frequently, too, a Grceco-Roman site has been afterwards used by the Arabs, the graves ofthe latter being nearer the surface than the former. Dr. Forrcr

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found that the mummies at Akhmim were usually about 5 ft., or alittle less, below the surface. They were bound, as a rule, to aboard of sycamore, and laid flat in the sand. Sometimes one ortwo stone slabs, from 12 in. to 18 in. across, were placed over thebody a foot or two below the surface. Occasionally brick-gravesof an oblong form were discovered. At Antinoe, M. Gayet foundthe mummy of Thaias at m. 3.50 (11 ft. 6 in.) below the surface.'

People of some consequence in their day had a gravestone,but often there appears to have been no record above ground. Theinterments generally took place in the garments worn in daily life,sometimes threadbare and in holes, or even patched and darned.These were usually one or two tunics, and an outer mantle or cloakof oblong form, with caps, socks, and shoes or sandals. For burial,the number of garments was sometimes multiplied. Occasionally,a large outer wrapping was specially used as a cere-cloth. Thishad probably served in some instances as a curtain or hanging ; inothers, it may have been new. The mummies were bound roundwith linen bandages, and patterned stuffs of different kinds (oldgarments, hangings, etc.) were often put round the neck or else-where to give the mummy a more even contour ' Sometimes stuffsused in this way are of considerable interest. One of the mostremarkable of all stuffs found in Egypt, the large and beautifullinen hanging with the resist-dyed subjects from the Story ofSemele and Bacchus, in the Louvre, was found twisted into a ropeand wound round the neck and arms of a poorly-dressed womanat Antinoe.' A pillow of woven stuff was sometimes placed underthe head.' A mummy found by Forrer* at Akhmim in 1894 was' Reiscbriefe (1895), p. 32, 39, 40. Gayet. Costume en Egypte, p. 13.'Guimet. Antinoe, p. 18.'See Gayet. Costume, p. 33.> First exhibited at the Petit Palais with other things found by M. Gayet during the seasons1903-4 and 1904-5 (Guimet, Antinoe, p. ig).^Guirnet, Antinoe, Plate m. In some of tlie graves was a small crescent-shaped pillowol leatner.

'' Reisebnefe, p. 45.15


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carefully unwrapped by him. First was a large outer covering withpurple stripes. Then ten wrappings in succession. Then pieces oflinen bunched together to fill up the angles above the shoulders.Next a large mantle with blue cross-bands and star-ornaments. Inthis mantle the mummy was bound to a board. Under the mantlewere ten more wrappings—two with purple stripes—and beneaththese fifteen fragments used as padding, among them an incompletetunic. Last of all, were two shrouds and a rolled-up cloth roundthe neck.

Theories in regard to the chronology of the different types ofpatterned stuffs from the burying-grounds show considerable dis-crepancies. At the outset we encounter the widest divergence ofall in comparing the earliest dates to which any of them have beenassigned. When Fischbach's' important work on textiles appearedin 1874, very few of these stuffs had been unearthed ; and it is notsurprising that, in illustrating some specimens in the Louvre, heshould have assigned them vaguely to about one thousand yearsbefore Christ. The tendency from that time onwards has beenprogressively to assign to them a more recent origin ; and latelythat process appears to have been carried too far. Forrer ' beginswith the first century a.d., and thinks some may even be earlier.Gayet^ is convinced that some of the stuffs found at Antinoe datefrom shortly after the foundation of the city. Von Falke ' allowsthat some of the best may go back as far as the fifth century A.D.,but considers most of them to belong to the sixth century, or alittle later.

Linen stuffs have, of course, been found on Egyptian mummiesburied thousands of years before any of these dates ; but thebeginnings of the class of patterned woven stuffs with which we

' Ornamente der Gewebe, Plate I.-Gracbcr-u.Textilfunde (p. 26).^Costume en Egypte (1900), p. 14.* Seidengewebe (p. 18).

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are dealing may with confidence be placed somewhere between thedates of Forrer and von Falke. The principal argument used bythe latter in favour of late origin appears to be that the clavus, thepurple stripe descending from each shoulder denoting equestrianrank among the Romans, did not lose its special significance beforethe fourth century, and therefore could not have been in generaluse in Egypt before that date. This argument loses all its forcewhen we consider that the purple shoulder-stripes are almost in-variably seen on the wax mummy-portraits (and no one disputesthe attribution of these to the second and early third centuries a.d.),as well as on the portraits painted on the canvas mummy-wrappersof the first century.

Mr. Flinders Petrie's excavations conducted at Hawarah inthe Faiyum in 1887-8, and continued in 1910-11, afford veryvaluable evidence of the processes of preparation of the mummiesand the methods of interment practised in the first centuries of ourera, thus helping very materially towards a solution of the vexedquestion of the dates of the stuffs.' The earliest style which con-cerns us here is that which came into vogue during the course ofthe first century A.D., when the formal cartonnage head-case ofPtolemaic fashion fell into disuse. Before the end of that century,canvas-covers, painted with the head and arms of the deceased innatural colours, were placed round the bodies. At the beginningof the second century, portrait-heads painted in wax on thin boards,and inserted in the wrappings over the face, were first used, thisfashion lasting for a century and a half.'Petrie, Hawara (1889), Roman Portraits (1911), Hawara Portfolio (19x3); Guimet, Antinoe.Fig. 63 and Plate 35. This evidence is most valuable, but, in order not to rely entirely uponmummies, an illustration of a different kmd, and from another locality, may be referred to.Figures wearing tunics with the clavus are painted on the walls of a subterranean tomb-chamberat Palmyra in the Syrian desert, ascribed to 259 a.d. (Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, Plate I.and Figs. 2 and 3).'Mr. Petrie has shown that during tliis period of the portraits, the mummies may be datedfairly well by the jewellery and the fashion of wearing the hair (Roman Portraits).

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Meanwhile, the cartonnage head-case was not abandoned, butdeveloped into a bust-portrait, including the arms, carefully modelledand attempting portraiture. In the second and third centuries,heads modelled in plaster and painted in colours, very life-like inconception, were sometimes fixed to the coffins.

In all these styles of portraiture, the painted canvas, the wax-portrait, the cartonnage bust, the plaster bust, embracing the periodfrom the later years of the first century to the middle of the third,there is ample evidence of the practice of decorating garments withpatterned purple ornaments disposed in the manner exemplified inthe stuffs.

The tunics worn both by men and women in the wax-portraitsare generally white, but sometimes green, red, or purple. They allhave the dark purple shoulder-bands, the width varying consider-ably, and the horizontal neck-border is sometimes seen.

M. Gayet's excavations at Antinoe tend to corroborate Mr.Petrie's observations at Hawarah, and they provide us with furtherdata respecting the garments worn by the Graeco-Roman popu-lation of that place from the middle of the second century onwards.One of the painted canvas portraits, apparently of the secondcentury, shows the tunic remarkably well, with shoulder-bands,cuff-bands, neck-border, and roundels.^ Two others are of excep-tional interest, as they show the large fringed mantles with purpleroundels.^ The patterns of the latter consist of interlaced orna-ment indicated by a white outline ; in one of them the interlacings take the form of an eight-pointed star-figure. The borderof this' is a wreath, and of the other the running wave. There' See bust of Aphrodite in the Museum.'See also Cairo Mus. Catalogue. C. C. Edgar, Graeco-Egyptian Coffins (1905).^Guimet, Portraits, Nos. 66, 66 bis. Two mummies with painted representations of thedeceased on the wrappings, are in the Cairo Museum. They are a man and a woman, and eacliwears a tunic with purple bands reaching to the lower edge (Memoires de la Mission . . . auCaire, Paris, iSSg, III., Pt. II., Plates A, B).* Guimet, Portraits, fig. 72, 75.

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is a series of roundels of this class in the Museum. Antinoe alsoyielded actual stuffs of the period of the portraits. Underneaththe heads of two mummies with plaster busts were placed somebeautiful woven woollen cloths with small diaper patterns incolours.' The busts are of women ; the manner of dressing thehair points to a date not later than the third century. Thisshould be remembered in view of its bearing on the chronology ofthe stuffs.

It is thus clear that during the period of the portraits {i.e.,first century to third century), garments with purple ornamentswere generally worn, and that in a few cases at least patternedstuffs woven before the end of that period have been preserved.

Although the Gr^eco-Roman population had adopted mummi-fication, this period of the portrait-mummy represents the last stagein that immemorial custom. From this time onwards people wereburied without mummification in the clothes they had worn whenalive. Perhaps a few of the Christian population adopted imme-diate burial earlier, and even after that became the usual rule aperfunctory and incomplete process of embalming was sometimesresorted to.'

Most of the patterned stuffs from Egypt must be dated fromthe time when mummification was no longer the general practice.In turning to these, we again find Mr. Petrie's work at Hawarah ofthe greatest value. In one grave there he found a garment withtwo roundels of formal and interlaced ornament, and in the samegrave was a fresh coin of one of the sons of Constantine, fixing itat about 340 a.d. Another grave, he points out, was evidentlyearlier, and this he ascribes to the second half of the third century.' Guiraet, Portraits, Plates hi and xiv,. Figs. 2 and 3.'Forrer, Rcisebriefe, p. 46. Gayet (Costume en Egypte, p. 14) found at Antmoe. either a sum-mary process of embalming, or else merely the use of bitumen. He attributes the preservationlargely to the sand. Pctrie found at Hawfirah that the bodies buried in their clothes werewithout preservative oils or resins.

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A hair-net was found in this grave. The stuffs found in the latergrave may also be of this century. There is ample evidence thatthe woven decorations were frequently transferred from a worn-outgarment to its successor, and in this way they may well have servedfor the wearer's whole lifetime.

Coins found in other burials at Hawarah show that intermentscontinued there until the early years of the sixth century. Animportant series of stuffs from Mr. Petrie's excavations there, is inthe Museum. As he has shown that they are to be assigned to theperiod between the latter half of the third century and the firstquarter of the sixth, they help greatly in providing material for achronological classification of stuffs from other sites.

The custom of burying the garments with those who had wornthem, when once adopted, became general. By the fourth centuryit was already the subject of adverse comment ; St. Jerome, St. Am-brose, and St. Basil all complain that the dead were buried inrich clothes which might have been better used.'We are on safe ground in assuming that these remarkable stuffsfrom Egypt give us a correct idea of the woven and embroidereddecoration of Graeco-Roman costume, not only in Egypt, but alsoin other parts of the Empire, from the first century onwards. Manyof the decorative motives are of much earlier origin. The runningwave (a gre'at favourite with the weavers in Egypt), fretwork, bandsof discs, small lozenge diapers, and other motives often show aremarkable similarity to the designs on early Greek stuffs as seenon vase-paintings of so remote a period as the sixth century B.C.

There can hardly be any doubt that some of the pieces in theMuseum collection date back to the 3rd century a.d. Possibly a feware even of the second ; but whether that be the case or not, aHawara, Plates xix, xxi and p. 12. Cf. hair-nets in the Museum, Nos. 322 and 323— 1889.A coin of the Emperor Constantino was found with a mummy, la Brodeuse, ' now in theCinquantenairc Museum, Brussels.'Cahier and Martin. Melanges, II,, p. 244, Note 2.


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comparison with the portrait-mummies already referred to showsconclusively that some of the purple tapestry examples are identicalin character with those worn in Egypt in the second century, andprobably in the first also. If few only belonging to those twocenturies are actually preserved, this is due to the methods olburial then practised.

The Museum collection numbers m all more than looo pieces,comprising examples of practically every period and every kind oftechnique hitherto excavated.

The ordinary tapestry-weaving process, evidently much usedboth for decorative and plain weaving in ancient times, is the mostcommon. The main fabric usuaUy consists of the simplest kind ofweaving : that is, plain cloth, in which each weft thread passes overand under alternate warps. Where it is intended to introduce adecorative panel, the warp and weft are not interwoven, but liein two sheets, on one of which the pattern is woven, while the otherserves no further purpose. The method employed for the tapestry-weaving is only a modification of the process used for the mainfabric. The warps are formed by taking more than one thread :for taking them separately would result in a finer texture thanwould usually be desired ; the weft consists of a coloured and morebulky material, and is beaten down so as to hide the warps. Thethicker weft tends to separate the warps and make the panel widerthan the space assigned for it, so that if all the threads are takento form the new warps, the main fabric becomes stretched and theregularity of the web disturbed. In some cases this difficulty hasbeen avoided by taking alternately two and three threads for eachwarp and leaving out every sixth thread. These unused threadscan be seen on the back of the stuff, lying beneath and at rightangles to the more numerous original weft threads.'' For other technical details see Laura Start. Coptic Cloths. Bankfield Mus. Notes ii. 4.Halifax, June, 1914.


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The linen stuffs in which the pattern is rendered by a woollenlooped technique, either in purple or in several colours, are separ-ately classified in this catalogue. Woven cloths entirely of wool,with various patterns, also form a class apart. Silk does not makeits appearance before the fourth century at the earliest. In thefirst centuries of the Roman Empire, silk was very rare and costly.Heliogabalus (218-222) is said to have been the first emperor towear garments wholly of silk, this precious material having onlybeen woven in conjunction with others before his time.'

Two examples in the Museum (Nos, 62 and 113) show the earlyand sparing use of silk for tapestry work. Woven panels entirely ofsilk for decorating linen robes came into more general use about thefifth or sixth century. Very rarely the garment was entirely of silk.

The purple and black silk square, No. 2128—igoo, was attachedto a piece of yellov/ silk, part of the garment it originally decorated.There is a fragment of another plain yellow silk tunic in the BritishMuseum ; and in the Berlin Museum silk ornaments similar to thoseon the linen tunic in the Museum, No. 820—1903, are stitched toa silk ground with a close lozenge diaper.'

Silk was also used by the Copts for embroidery, but most ofthe Coptic work was done by the tapestry process in coloured wools.

Work done for the Arabs from the seventh century onwardswas often in silk tapestry. Woven stuffs in this period are some-times of mixed linen and silk, sometimes all of silk. Stripes andchequer-patterns are usual. By the thirteenth century, silk damaskswith woven Arabic inscriptions are found, and imported Chinesesilk damasks of the Ming period, probably as early as the fourteenthcentury, are not infrequently met with.

The question whether different localities had their own peculiartypes of ornament is not without significance. If this point couldAel. Lampridius Ant. Heliog. cap. xxv. ; quoted by Michel, Recherches II., p. 4.'Pniss. Jahrbuch xxiv.. 1903, p. 154.


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be satisfactorily settled in regard to the woven silk stuffs, we shouldbe helped very considerably towards a solution of the problemswhich beset the classification of all early silks. No convincing casehas yet been made out for the local origin of these silk stuffs. Itis true that the majority of those found at Akhmim differ, forexample, from the majority of those found at Antinoe, but thesestuffs do not all belong to the same period ; and there is, moreover,more than one route by which they might find their way into Egypt.Thus it would not be surprising to find stuffs from Alexandriaor Hither Asia in the towns of Upper Egypt. Until furtherevidence is forthcoming, we cannot place much reliance on theclaims to a local origin made on behalf of these silks. When wecome to the stuffs with inwrought tapestry-woven ornamentation, •the question presents itself in another light. The process is onewhich would neither require a long technical training nor anyspecial cumbersome apparatus. Wooden combs used in beatingdown the weft threads in tapestry work have been found in largenumbers in Egypt, and in different sites, where they must havebeen used locally. Many are in the Cairo Museum.Numerous implements for spinning, weaving, and embroiderywere found by M. Gayet in the grave of a woman at Antinoe.The tapestry-woven and embroidered stuffs were, no doubt, oftenmade in the locality, or even in the homes, of the wearers. Butthis cannot always have been the case. Alexandria and Akhmimwere both renowned for linen weaving, and the output from suchcentres of the industry must have been far in excess of local needs.'This may partly account for close similarities in stuffs found insites far apart ; but there is every reason to believe that certainfavourite decorative motives were used all over the country.

' Cat. Kopt. Kunst, Nos. 8837 to 8841, 7240, 7241. No. 8838 is said to have come from ,\khmim.A weaver's wooden comb from Akhmim is in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg.'Guimct, Portraits, p. 10.3 A Roman writer of the third century speaks of the linen-weavers of Alexandria. Sec Strzyg-owski in Kopt. Kunst (Cairo Mus. Cat.), p. xvi, quoting from Mommsen, Rom. Geschichte V., 576.

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The almost complete disappearance of the formulae of ancientEgyptian art in these stuffs seems at first hard to explain. Butsome idea of the extent to which Greek life had penetrated intoEgypt before the advent of the Romans may be gained from thebrief historical summary already given. For three centuries beforeEgypt submitted to Alexander the Great, Greek merchants hadfound their way far into the interior, and flourishing Greek settle-ments had been established. Alexandria, founded by the con-queror, soon became the greatest city of the Eastern Mediterraneanregion. Other cities, where wealthy Greek merchants resided,received Greek names, and Greek culture and taste spread amongthe native population. For another three centuries after Alex-ander, Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of Greek origin, and theadvent of the Romans did little to interfere with Greek life and artas established in the country. Yet we must not attribute every-thing to the Greeks ; the skilfulness of native craftsmen was, nodoubt, requisitioned, and the animals, birds, and plants to be repre-sented were largely chosen from those which could be found inEgypt. Other indications of Egyptian tradition are not altogetherlacking. The peculiar looped form of the Cross, derived from anancient Egyptian hieroglyph, is perhaps the most conspicuous.Two important embroidered squares from Bahnasa, Nos. 1285,1286—1904, with portrait-heads in Byzantine styles, have bordersrepresenting fish swimming about among lotuses—a plant in-timately associated with Egyptian symbolism. Lotuses with water-fowl and swimming fishes are also seen on the sleeve-band, No. 180.In the Hermitage Museum at Petrograd there is a fine roundel con-taining a female bust with the asp (uraeus) on a solar disc above thehead. The figure is inscribed rH (the Earth). A companionroundel in the possession of M. Golenishchev has a figure inscribedNEIA02 (the Nile).'Wladimir Bock. Coptic Figured Textiles. Plate xvi (i). These two remarkable specimenswere found by M. Bock at Akhmim in 1888.

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VOLUME I.—GRiECO-ROMAN PERIODINTRODUCTION

THE precision and delicacy of line and simplicity of colour inthe earliest stuffs from Egypt stand out in strong contrastto the bright decorative colouring and confused delineation of thelater Coptic tapestry-work. Yet the stages from the one to theother are so gradual that there is considerable difficulty in rangingthe whole group under different categories and whatever classi-fication we may adopt, its defects are visible at a glance A classi-fication of some sort is, however, essential if an effort is to be madeto present a clear outline of the course of development from theone to the other. The classification adopted here has been madeas simple as possible, although it should be at once admitted thatconsistency has been made to yield ground to convenience, both inregard to the main groups and the sub-divisions. The former arethree, designated the Graeco-Roman period, the period of Tran-sition, and the Coptic period The distinction between the firstand third is broadly that between classical .(pagan) and earlymediaeval (Christian) art. The second group shares the features ofboth, those of the former predominating. The hmits of the secondand third will be more fully defined in subsequent chapters. In thepresent volume we are concerned with the first group, at the sametime freely acknowledging that the dividing line between it and thesecond is almost impossible to define. During the Graeco-Romanperiod the sentiment throughout is what we usually designate asclassical—an art suited to the tastes of the Greek traders and Romanofficials domiciled in Egypt. No doubt many of the craftsmen were

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Greeks, and inscriptions, where we iind them, arc always in theGreek language.

Possibly there may be among these stuffs a few pieces belong-ing to the first two centuries of our era.' If so, the means of singlingthem out are now lost to us. The centuries within the limits ofwhich the Grseco-Roman group is here placed are the third to thefifth, thus overlapping in some degree the period of the next group,which includes a good many examples which may be as early as thefifth century.

The sub-divisions within this first group are arranged morefrom the point of view of convenience than rigid consistency. Thetunics, cloaks, and smaller wrappings (all more or less complete)are dealt with first, before turning to the decorative fragments.The former give an idea of the sort .of articles the latter onceadorned. The fragmentary stuffs are so numerous that they havebeen classified according to subject, whether human figures, animals,trees, and plants, or other ornamental motives. The nature of thegarment to which each belonged is stated where this can reasonablybe conjectured. One exception is made in this classification, thatof the stuffs with patterns woven with a looped surface ; these, forconvenience, are kept together. The dates assigned to individualpieces represent, it must be confessed, rather an attempt to tracethe general lines of development than to state precisely the periodwhen each was woven. Older fashions would have lingered insome centres, and others would have caught the newest taste befoietheir neighbours. In Alexandria things moved in advance ofPhilse. In one district the Christian faith, with new ideals andmotives, made great strides before it even reached another. Onetown, situated on a trade route, would have felt the influence ofthe art of Asia ; while a second still followed time-honoured tradi-tion. As a general rule, the better-drawn designs are ascribed toan earlier period than the others, and attempts at polychromaticeffect, often made at the expense of the drawing, are regarded asa sign of a comparatively late origin.

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I._TUNICS, CLOAKS, AND LARGE CLOTHS.THE tunic is the principal garment found in the bur3'ing-grounds of Egypt, and in the times with which we are nowconcerned it was the chief garment in daily use. In shape it is oneof the simplest of all garments. It is usually woven in one piece,which, when spread out, would take the form of a cross, the uprightportion being of the width of the garment, and the transverse por-tion consisting of two narrower projections of equal length, at themiddle, for the sleeves. Across the centre is a horizontal slit forthe head. If the head were thrust through this opening, two equalparts, each of T-form, would hang down at the back and front, likea herald's tabard, but these parts are sewn together at the sidesand under the arms, giving the garment a square-shaped body,with two full cylindrical openings for the arms. In this or somekindred form the garment is very widely found, and has lastedfrom remote times down to the present. It was the under-garmentboth of the Greeks (y'tw>') and Romans {tunica).

Under the Romans, the tunic had certain distinguishing em-bellishments. Sprinkled with some kind of ornamentation {tunicapalmata), it was worn at triumphs. With a broad vertical purplestripe descending from the middle of the neck {tunica laticlavia), itwas worn by men of senatorial rank. Those of equestrian rankwore two narrow purple stripes, one descending from each shoulder{tunica angusticlavia) . In this last form it spread to the outlyingparts of the empire, apparently losing its significance of rank bythe end of the first century a.d.

As worn by men, it generally terminated just above the knee,and as a rule the sleeves are said to have been short. The women's'The poet Ansoniiis receiverl a tunica palmata from Gratian, with a portrait of Constantiusupon it (l' r. Michtl. Kucherches, I., p. 20, Note 2).


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were worn fuller and longer than the men's. Two tunics wereusually worn together. As a rule, tunics were precisely the sameat back and front, both as regards shape and ornamentation. Somelater tunics are cut away at the neck in front and not at the back,and have a different arrangement of braid trimmings

The tunics described in this chapter, whether men's or women's,probably reached to the ankles of the wearers, the shorter onesbeing smaller in all dimensions than the larger, and the sleeves arelong.' The height from the lower edge to the neck ranges from3 ft. 4 in. (632—1886)^ to 4 ft. 6 in. (270—1886), and the width,including the sleeves, from 4 ft. 3 in. (No. 2) to 6 ft. 7 in. (No. i) ;the sleeves are from i ft. to 18 in. long. At this time the garment isgenerally of linen, which is occasionally faced with linen loops, forwarmth.^ The younger Pliny [d. a.d. 113) has a description ofthis looped stuff. He states ^ that the gausapa {yavainro^, 'yavaaTrri


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The tunics and cloaks described in this chapter are all of Imen,wool being used, together with linen thread, for the tapestry decora-tion only. The same statement applies to most of the pieces in-cluded in the following chapters.The tapestry-work was usually of wool, with linen threads forthe ground and for smaller details. Silk is very rarely found inthis class of work, a fact which suggests that the material itself wasrare and costly at the time, and, therefore, that the specimens areearlier than the middle of the sixth century, when silk was firstcultivated in the West. Two examples of silk tapestry from linentunics belonging to this period, both of remarkably fine work, arein the Museum collection. One is a square panel with part of ashoulder-band (No. 62) ; the other is a roundel with part of a shoulder-band (No. 113). A tiny roundel (No. 162) is rarer stiU. It has abird in purple, on a gold thread ground '—an example of the purpleand gold stuffs which represented the hmit of luxury in ancient times.

To sum up, the question whether a tunic is of linen or wool,and whether its ornamentation is in wool or silk, is by no meansnegligible when a date has to be assigned to it. Another pointworthy of notice is that where the stuff is tapestry-woven through-out, including both ornament and ground, it generally appears tobelong to a relatively late style.

Turning to the tunics in the Museum collection, we find severalmethods of arranging the ornamentation, though all include theshoulder-bands {clave \ in some form The order in which these gar-ments are placed in the catalogue is devised with a view to trace theprogressive modifications in the disposition of the ornament, ratherthan the actual chronological sequence, which is a matter of someuncertainty ; there can be little doubt that the styles overlapped,and more than one must have been prevalent at the same time.''

' It is just as rare to find woollen tapestry, rather than silk, in the Arab period.'A thin strip of gold, apparently pure, wound round a white silk core. There is in the ViennaMuseum a small panel with a geometrical pattern in gold thread (Kunst und Handwerk, xiv,1911, p. 253).3 But see the .stuffs from the tomb of Thothmcs IV. (p. 3).*See the different types in the Gospels of Rossano Cathedral (A. Munoz, 11 Codice . . . diRossano, Rome, 1907).

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The simplest, and perhaps the earliest, is No. i. This tunic islarge and very ample. A simple broad stripe, 4 inches in width,begins on either side immediately at the neck-opening and runs downthe whole length.' There is a similar stripe round each sleevenear the end. The decoration on these stripes is indicated on thesolid purple ground, in an outline of fine linen thread.

The next tunic (No. 2) shows the addition of a broad trans-verse band bordering the neck-opening at both back and front andlinking the shoulder-bands together.

The decoration on this tunic, as mainly on those yet to be des-cribed, is in solid masses of purple on a ground of white linen threads.

The third example (No. 3) shows six squares in addition—twolarger ones on the shoulders,' and two smaller ones near the bottomcorners and beyond the shoulder-bands, at both back and front.The neck-borders are in the form of arcades ; each has four semi-circular arches, enclosing figures. The small white cross, abovein the middle, is an interesting indication that we have probablyreached the Christian period. A few details in bright red are foundin the ornamentation of this garment. This is not infrequentlyseen, verj' sparingly used, in purple stuffs.

A small child's tunic (No. 4) is scarcely 14 inches long, but itshows precisely the same arrangement of ornamentation as a full-sizcd tunic would. An important change is here introduced. Theshoulder-band loses about half its • length, and terminates at thewaist in a short, narrow stem to which a pendent ornament, suchas a leaf or a small roundel, is attached. This is the most usualform of the shoulder-band in later times. The squares seen onthe previous example are here replaced by roundels.

The last example (No. 5) is a portion only ; enough is preservedto show that the tunic had no neck-bands.It has been suggested (by Forrer) that the stripe running all the way down denotes a woman's

garment. This is not the case. It is worn, for example, by Marcus in his painted repre-sentation at llie Musee Giiimet, and the size of the tunic under discussion clearly shows it is aman's. There is overwhelming evidence in mosaics and illuminated MSS. that no such dis-tinction can be drawn outside Egypt, at any rate.' See earthenware relief in Cairo Museum, No. 8978 (Knpt. Kunst, Fig. 280)

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The tunic was the principal garment worn in Egypt in Graeco-Roman times, but there can be no doubt that an outer cloak ormantle was also worn when the weather necessitated an extracovering, and probably on occasions of ceremony as well. Thiscloak, in fact, served the same purpose as the Roman toga, althoughthat garment is not actually found in Egyptian graves. The togawas a large cloth in the form of a segment of a circle arranged in aprescribed manner over the tunic. It was laid aside when therewas work to be done, and in imperial times it came to have merelyan official significance, surviving in the early Middle Ages as anornamental band, worn by certain dignitaries. The correspondingGreek garment was the himation [Itidnov), a large oblong clothworn somewhat in the same manner as the toga. A garmentof this character was adopted by the Romans from the Greeks,and was known as the pallium. Both pallium and toga were putto various uses. They were used as coverings in sleeping, and asshrouds for burial. Further, the palhum (if not the toga as well)was spread over a bed or couch, or even laid on the floor.

It is the garment corresponding to the pallium that we find inEgypt. There it may even have had other uses, as a curtain orhanging. The question has been often debated whether the finebig cloths found in Egypt were really used in life as garments.They are oblong in shape, one entire specimen in the Museum(No. 6), measuring g ft. 6 in. by 6 ft. 3 in.' The probable explana-tion is that many of them served a variety of uses, like the Romantoga ; and as a matter of convenience, the large cloths, whethergarments or hangings, are described together here and in other sec-tions of the catalogue. Figures and reliefs provide ample proof thatcloaks were worn in Egypt over the tunic. These would be pecu-liarly suitable for a wrapping at burial, and we need have no hesi-tation in assuming that such garments are to be identified amongthese cloths from the graves. At the same time, it must be recog-nised that the ornamentation of some of these cloths is inappro-priate for the purposes of costume. For example, the large clotii

'Other examples measure about 7 ft. 9 in. by 5 ft. {Gayet, Costume, pp. 174, 211).31


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with two pilasters (No. T232—1917), one of a set of four discoveredtogether at Damietta, is obviously a hanging of some sort. Thismay also be said of the cloth embroidered with a scattered patternof trees and blossoms and a frieze of vine-stems, found at the sametime (No. 22). The fragment with a flying figure (one of twooriginally) supporting a cross within a wreath (No. 349—1887),may be mentioned as another instance. An outstanding featureof the decoration of a number of large cloths in the Museum is thecharacteristic border composed of four ornamental right-angles.This ornamentation would be very suitable for floor-coverings ;and it is easy to show that it was applied to curtains and hangings ;but that it was also used on cloaks is made clear by the decorationof certain mummy-cases, where it is seen on the shoulder. Earlyaltar-coverings, as represented in mosaics and illuminated MSS.,often had this form of decoration, and it is also to be found quitefrequently in reliefs and stone carvings.' The resemblance to theGreek letter gamma has given to cloths thus ornamented the nameof gammadion, gammadiae, or gammidc-e. The best example in theMuseum, and one of the finest cloths of the kind in existence, isNo. 6. It will be noticed that the ornament, though of a veryformal character, is dehberately designed so as not exactly tobalance. There are two varieties of roundels in the corners, theopposite ones being alike, and the interlaced ornament in the middleof one side of the cloth is larger than the other three and differentin design. The same pecuUarity is shared by several other largecloths in the collection. It forms hardly an adequate foundationto build a theory upon, but yet it is worthy of attention ; as a decora-tive scheme for a wrapping to go over the shoulders it is intelligible,but if the cloth were intended to be spread out flat, there seems toThis should be compared with a large hanging from an Egyptian burying-ground in the Berlin

Museum. The design of the latter is an arch supported by columns, with a lion in the lunetteand birds in the spandrels. The outer space has the looped cross (ankh) repeated (IIlus. H.Swoboda, Il6m. Quartalschrift VII.. 1892, Plate vi ; See also O. M, Dalton, Byz. Art., p. 577,n. 2).'E.g., Stone relief in crypt of St. IVIark's, Venice ; choir-screen in S. Clemente, Rome. W. Lowrieargues that this design and others were borrowed by the stone-carvers from textile art (Rome.Atti del 2** congresso di Archeologia cristiana, 1902, p. 43)

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be no reason for making the ornament so deliberately unsym-metrical. The decoration of these cloths seems to have been muchmore a matter of individual fancy than that of the tunic. Manyvarieties have been found in the burying-grounds, although com-paratively few have been preserved entire. The cloth, just men-tioned, in the Museum (No. 6) is important both on account of itscomplete state and its ornamentation.A corner of another cloth is similar both in technique anddesign (No. 7), except that the lozenges in the middle of the borders,and possibly also the central circle, did not appear. Sometimesthe angular ornament is omitted and the corner-roundels are in-creased in size, as in No. 8.' Nos. 11 and 12 must have been similarin the arrangement of the ornamentation.' The surface of bothof these cloths is woven in loops. Another looped cloth (No. g)shows only a large purple hooked cross (swastika), and traces of asingle end-border. This is so incomplete that we cannot be sureof the arrangement, but it probably had four swastikas disposedlike the circles in that just mentioned.' A large fretwork squareinstead of the swastikas is seen on No. 10.An oblong cloth of which only about half is preserved (No. 13)is of plain linen, with ornaments woven by the tapestry method,like that employed for the tunics. The decoration consists of twobands at either end, and four star-shaped corner ornaments. Afine band (No. 14) shows the star-forms united by a long stem,having a central roundel, and extended to right and left where itterminates in small vases. Two of these decorative bands shouldrun across the width of the cloth, one near either end, and therewas probably a large star in the middle. ^ Some of the cloths weredivided up by parallel bands.There was probably a central panel [cf. Gayet, Costume, diagram on p. 174).= In the Charta Cornutiana, the records of a church near Tivoli in 471, hangings are describedwith square or circular ornaments and borders. The former appear to have been called clavi or clavatura ; the latter paragauda or periclisis (Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, I.,p. 146, quoted by Dreger, Entwicklung).3 See also J. Baillet—Tapisseries d'Antino6 au Mus^e d'Orleans, Plate i.; Guimet, Portraits, p. 1 1.^Diagram in Gayct, Costume, p. 207. See also diagram on p. 211, and illus. on p. 213; anelongated panel almost identical is in the Museum, No. 204.

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One (No. 15) has a close succession of bands, almost entirelyin purple, progressively increasing in width. Others {e.g., Nos. 21,747—1886, 821—1905) have bands of a floral character in naturalcolours. A cloth of looped weaving (No. 18) shows a decorativearrangement of bands, a large dolphin, and the head of a boy. Thefragmentary state makes a reconstruction difiicult.

The last stage presents a promiscuous arrangement of orna-ment far removed from the ordered restraint of the decoration onthe first of the cloths above mentioned. Small decorative forms aresometimes scattered all over the surface. It is not always easy toreconstruct the scheme from the torn fragments which are all wehave in some cases. Two examples in the Museum show roundelswhich, to judge by their unusually large size, were probably in themiddle of the cloth. In each instance the roundel is incomplete,but enough is preserved to show that it must have been little lessthan 2 ft. in diameter. The first (No. 187) contains interlacedornament, the second has part of a figure (Bacchanalian ?) with aewer (No. 23). Another fragment (No. 50) shows the head andhands of a figure holding up a bowl. The figure was unusuallylarge in scale.'

The last example to which special attention need be drawn inthis chapter is No. 19. The festoons, flying figures, hangingbaslcets, and scattered ornaments bring to the mind the art ofRavenna, and no doubt they stand for the tendencies of laterclassical art when it was already beginning, in one of its phases,to come within the limits of what we term Byzantine art.

It has already been hinted that figures showing the mantle asworn over the tunic in Egypt both by men and women are stillpreserved. Some of them show plainly the nature of the decorationon the mantle. The collection of modelled and painted mummy-portraits, of the early centuries of our era, in the Cairo Museumshow points of considerable interest. A fine modelled portrait ofa man (Cat. Edgar, No. 33,210, Plate xxx) has a large hooked cross(swastika) on the mantle, like that already referred to in the

' There is a cloth of similar character in the British Museum, with an archer.34


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Museum (No. 9). Another modelled figure, a woman (No. 33,155,Plate xxi) shows on the mantle the characteristic angular orna-ment with notched ends similar to that on Nos. 6 and 30. Some-times the notched band is straight, as on a modelled mummy-portrait (No. 33,126, Plate vii), and on Museum specimens suchas No. 39. Another modelled figure of a man (No. 33, 276, Plate xlvi)shows a square panel on the mantle, like many examples in theMuseum. Comparisons with wax-painted portraits have alreadybeen made. Before passing to objects outside the range of the artof Egypt, a few figures in other materials may be mentioned. Thegreat porphyry figure from Alexandria in the Cairo Museum,'wears the tunic and mantle, hkewise the figures on numerous grave-stones,' and on stone carvings.^ One gravestone^ shows a womanstanding in the attitude of prayer wearing a long tunic on whichthe border at the neck and the two short shoulder-bands are clearlyindicated. Their shape is very similar to No. T246—1917, fromLord Grenfell's collection. An imperfect clay relief at Cairo, ^ attri-buted to the fourth century, represents a man wearing a tunic andcloak ; and the square panel on the arm and the deep border atthe cuffs of the tunic are visible.

The question whether tunics and cloths decorated in thevarying fashions described above are peculiar to Egypt, or whetherthey may be safely regarded as representative of the costume ofWestern antiquity, is not without interest. It has already beenstated that none have been preserved from other parts of the RomanEmpire, or from anywhere else, but we are not altogether left inthe dark. So far as their technique is concerned, the cloth foundin Pope Leo's relic-chest in the Capella Sancta Sanctorum, and Cat., Strzygowski, Plate I, No. i.'E.g., Cat., Crum, 8685 foil.3 Statuette, No. 7271, Cat., Strzygowski, Fig. 17. Cat., Crum, 8684.'Cat., Strzygowski, No. 8078.'' Linen Mappula or brandcuin (62 by .)o cm.) with woollen tapestry ornament—two transversebands filled with hexagons in white, green, blue, yellow, and red, on a red ground. Betweeneach of these bands and the fringed ends a row of crosses m green, red, and yellow (II. Grisar. Cap.Sancta Sanctorum, Fig. Oi).

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those in the Treasury of Monza Cathedral' show that the inwrought-tapestry method used in these garments from Egypt was practisedin similar form elsewhere, for there is no reason to suppose that thestuffs at Monza and Rome were made in Egypt. With regard tothe form and decoration of the garments, comparisons with repre-sentations in mosaics, paintings, and carvings prove conclusivelythat those worn in Egypt were not peculiar to that country.A Roman fresco in the Naples Museum represents a youthfulfigure holding a cup and wearing a tunic reaching to the knees.The decoration is disposed in the same way as that of No. 270—1886,above described, except that the panels are circular instead ofsquare, like No. 4. In the fresco, the whole ornamentation is inbrown, with rows of yellow discs. An incised marble slab of theearly Christian period in the Lateran, in memory of Titus whodied aged 10 years and 7 months, shows the boy wearing a tunicwith short clavi, bands at the wrists, and circular panels on theshoulders and in the bottom corners. A fresco in the Cemeteryof the Vigna Massimi in the Via Salaria Nuova, Rome, shows an orante wearing a tunic with long clavi, and bands on the veryfull sleeves.' The pattern consists of a wavy stem with circlesresembling that on tunic No. i (see also No. ig6) with a running-wave border Hke that of the bands on the cloth No. 6.

The fresco at Naples is probably of the first century a.d. ;there is no means of ascertaining the date of the Titus slab.The Vigna Massimi figure is assigned by Venturi to the first halfof the fourth century, but the date of almost all catacomb paintingsis disputed.'' In fact, properly authenticated representations infresco or mosaic of the first centuries of the Christian era are veryscarce, and most of those of which the date is known have sufferedrestoration. Therefore, although it is most instructive to compare' A Corporale of linen, looped ; with small red crosses in the corners and middle. Other piecesof similar kind. See X. Barbier de Montault m Bull. Mon. XLVIII., 5* serie, X {1882) pp. 231,454. 593-°See child's tunic, No. 4.3 Venturi. -Storia I., Fig. 16. Fig. 15 shows an orante with plain clavi from S. Callisto.•The general tendency in the past seems to have been to assign to them an earlier date than iswarranted, and they seem to have undergone a good deal of restoration m the early Middle Ages.

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the garments from Egypt with early Christian monuments of theWest, theories in regard to chronology based on such comparisonsmust not be pressed too far. The early Christian monuments ofthe city of Ravenna, as would be naturally expected, provideabundant material for comparison with the Egyptian stuffs. Thecomparison serves to show the striking uniformity in matters ofcostume and decoration in widely-parted divisions of the RomanEmpire, and also it provides us with remarkable evidence of thecontinued use through several centuries of such types of ornamentas we have found on the stuffs in Egypt. The oldest monumentof Ravenna—the_mausoleum of Galla Placidia—affords the mostinteresting points of comparison. Built during Galla's hfetime,towards the middle of the fifth century, it has been described aswork of the Roman decadence, rather than Byzantine. Thefigures in the mosaics wear tunics with long, narrow clavi. Thedecorative features of the mosaics of this chapel are of much in-terest. The border round the lunette mosaics of the Good Shepherdand St. Lawrence, a double running-wave, is identical with the bandson the large cloth (No. 6). Another lunette, with stags amid fohage,has a fret border resembling that on tunic No. i. The acanthusfoliage in this lunette is very similar to that on some stuffs fromEgypt {e.g., N6. 176). The familiar four-petalled rose, seen sofrequently on these stuffs, is also represented on the vault. Thegarlands of fruit and leaves on the arches resemble some of thecoloured tapestries from Egypt.

The church of S. ApoUinare Nuovo, built by Theodoric (d. 526),is decorated with mosaics of great interest. Most of these are ofTheodoric's time, but some alterations were made, about half acentury later, in the long row immediately above the nave arches.The scenes from the life of Christ, immediately under the roof, havemany figures with tunics showing the long or the short clavi ; thebands on the sleeves, and the square and circular panels either onthe shou

catalog of textiles from burying-ground in egypt vol.i

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